Super Toaster X: Learn Japanese

So as promised, the last two weeks devlog. I'll see if interaction becomes better as I add more content to those. If not, I'll add some more.






Well, this week has been busy D: I’ve finished pretty much everything I wanted to do for toaster this week though, which was surprising to say the least.
Here’s the changelog:

Characters:
Pan can get hit in bread form now
Changed height Pan could reach during the toaster launch
Butter Fly now takes up way more energy
Made the leash shorter
Made the leash

Enemies:
Made the boss a bit easier
Reduced dog health

Interactable objects
Changed steam pipes
Fridgepoints now also recharge heatlh

Systems
Changed special weapon switching(You now use one button to open the menu and then switch between items)
Added remappable keys

Gui, hud and all that beautiful nonsense
Added key config screen(WIP)
Added text to menu to notify people that the keyboard doesn’t work when you have a gamepad plugged in(this’ll be changed)
changed the weaponbox position

Sound
Added bullet shooting sound
added bullet charging sound
added charged bullet sound
added checkpoint sound
added battery sound
added big battery sound

Details and Effects
Made the gear physics a bit more random

Levels
Nothing for now

Fixed bugs
Fixed not being able to read signs with gamepad(Quite stupid of me)
Fixed remotes of pan’s teleport existing in walls
Fixed the game bugging when launching Pan in the water
Fixed not being able to jump next to a sign
Fixed enemies not respawning
Fixed being able to keep an enemy alive by hitting it during its death animation
Fixed the lagg
Fixed the duck not appearing



Known bugs
None for now










What a week!  This was my first major week working as both composer and sound designer for all of the effects in the game.  To say the least, it was a blast!  

In terms of the music, both the Toilet Tank Stage level music and the Title Screen music are composed!  These two tracks - especially the stage level - revolve around a singular word: concise.  My history as a composer - especially as a classical composer, first and foremost - has often been about complexity.  I’d ask myself “What can I do to make this even more complex?”  WIth Super Toaster X, however, the challenge has been, “What can I do to maintain the amount of interest while avoiding hardcore musical complexity?”  I think it’s important to note that for this type of game, utilizing a concise musical idea is far more critical than creating variety of harmony, instrumentation, and overall structure. This game has very clear gameplay and narrative; the music ought to reflect that!  Next week I may link a small sample of the Toilet Tank Stage to demonstrate this concept!

In regards to the sound effects, I have simply been picking the needed sounds at random.  Some of the sounds accomplished thus far are Reaching/Passing a Checkpoint, picking up Batteries (both small and large!), and a Charging Shot.  Once compiled, I’m hoping to have everyone hear them in action to coincide with the gameplay!  

This upcoming week my primary focus is sound effects alone.  My brain bounced between SFX and Music the past week, so it’ll be good to focus on one side of the spectrum.

First on the list for this week: Pushing Down the Toaster - (this, after all, is how we toast bread!)

Cheers! :D







Hello guys! You'll notice I'll be keeping my part of the devlog more concise from now on. I want to say more with less words from now on to be more efficient at writing.

I was pretty excited this week to watch someone playing “my” game. That project I’ve been working on for close to a year. My little dream. So, needless to say, I was anxious about it. It’s like opening yourself up in a way, being vulnerable. Having your ideas, your tastes and decisions suddenly judged by someone you don’t know, a stranger.

On one hand, I’m obviously hoping that people like what they playtest but on the other hand, I need the criticism to make the
technical demo perfect for the KickStarter.

So basically, this week has been about fixing all the stuff mentioned by marcgfx in this video test of the demo. Video reviews are just about the best tool one can have to test demos, I would strongly encourage everyone to take that path.

Some new art from me:






And some progress on the title screen by the talented artist, Aaron Hazouri:

First rough:


Second rough:


Third rough:


Getting closer and closer to what I'm looking for!

As for testing, I've sent the latest build to alvarop who'll be making a feedback video for the VREC.

That’s it for this week, have a good one!





@marcgfx: If by adapting you mean redo the animations so it fits the new design? Then I'd have to say no  ;).  




Another week fixing lots of bugs and adding sounds. We actually also changed the screen size again, so I actually have to redo the entire level again :’D

Characters:
increased pan’s invincibility frames
Changed pan’s whip
changed the way to activate the whip again

Enemies:
Copters now move faster
reduced copter reload
Razor dog goes a little less batshi*t crazy every time he sees pan
slowed razor dog

Systems
Key config now gets saved over games in an .ini

Gui, hud and all that beautiful nonsense
centered toast text

Changed the cursor in the config menu

Changed the way you choose gamepad or keyboard

there’s mostly image signs now instead of text signs

Sound

added whip sound

added butter sound

added player hit sound

added enemy hit sound

added ejecting sound

added energy leech sound

added missile sound

added jumping sound

added landing sound

added duck sound(hihi)

added grapple sounds

added splash sound

Details and Effects

increased damage number size

reduced energy cost for normal shots

changed the charge shot

reduced gears

Levels
Nothing for now

Fixed bugs
Fixed falling through the duck
fixed the lagg again(?)
Fixed some crashes
removed pressing “R” to restart the game
fixed pan facing the other way when he gets hit
fixed the boss not pausing during weapon select
fixed random “congratulations” text
fixed some going into walls stuff

-I probably forgot some stuff


Known bugs
None for now

that’s it for this week! Stuff’s getting more polished and more polished c:







Sound effects, sound effects, sound effects! This past week has been filled with setting up, recording, synthesizing, and all sorts of sound effect replication.  I’m pretty sure my apartment complex was fairly intrigued when I knocked on one of my neighbor’s doors and asked if I could I could record their toaster (specifically the “push-down” and “pop-up”).  That being said, there’s a lot in store for the game already - 25 sound effects this past week and a half or so!

In terms of the music, I was decided to share one of the tracks made for the game so far!  Considering I’m new to the project, I think it would be a good way to present myself to those of you following the development progress.  The link below will show you what I worked on about two weeks ago now.

Here is the music to the Toilet Tank Stage!

Cheers! :D






We’re still experiencing heavily on game design at this point in time. Albeit this game started as a Mega Man clone, I’m finding myself wanting to separate myself from this reference more and more.

There would be little point in adding yet another typical platformer to the already saturated market. Since I’m still in early development, now’s the time to change and improve the game design.

The flame-thrower bores me. It’s a weapon present in tons of games already and doesn’t really fit with the universe I’m trying to create. This is an ability I want to get rid of.

The wall-jump: I think wall jumping is fun. It’s an ability which I enjoy in most platformers. On the other hand, it’s become a tradition now, something player take for granted. I don’t want to fit in the platformer mold (well less than right now anyway).
It also disqualifies the toaster launch which I really want to integrate better into the game. So this is an ability I’m considering getting rid of.

Art-wise I redid some animations again. I’m finding myself dissatisfied with the first versions of all the animations I need so redoing them is pretty much mandatory.

I redid the toaster launch animation:


I redid the whip animation:


alvarop released a gameplay video in private for the VREC. The reason why it was in private was because the game crashed about 3 minutes in. Anyway, during that video, he explained that he didn’t like to read in video games. I actually agree with him. I remember playing Divine Divinity and just mashing the button whenever text would show up. I think a lot of games make the mistake of not being concise, which, in my opinion, is essential in a video game environment.

So I’ve started replacing all of the signs in the game by pictures instead sort of like in Braid or Binding of Isaac. I find that more attractive and better design. So thanks for the criticism, alvarop!











I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before but the game will be presented at a game show in Toulouse on the 28th-29th of November. It’ll still be very much so alpha by the time it reaches the booth but it’ll be a great opportunity for feedback. How I wish I could be there to talk to people live about the game. France isn’t exactly next door unfortunately.

No news from the title screen artist unfortunately.

That’s it for now. See you next week.